Challenger`s Plight Is Double-edged

INDIANAPOLIS — Mike Pence said he only wanted what a lot of people want-a nice home, a car and an occasional dinner out with his wife.

Pence also wants what a lot of people don`t-a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

His problem was that running for Congress takes so much time that he had to quit his job. Because he still had to pay his bills, he filled the financial void with campaign contributions.

The practice has the blessing of the Federal Election Commission, and Pence disclosed the payments on campaign finance forms. But he learned the hard way that most people don`t understand campaign finance regulations and that ``legally right`` and ``politically correct`` are not the same thing.

When the Franklin (Ind.) Daily Journal disclosed recently that Pence had been using contributions to pay living expenses since January, it provoked a sharp outcry, angering a significant number of Pence`s supporters in his central Indiana district.

So, like a long line of politicians before him, Pence went full throttle into damage-control mode.

He announced that, despite the financial sacrifice, he would no longer pay his bills with campaign money. While he was at it, he challenged his opponent, eight-term Democratic incumbent Phil Sharp, to give back a portion of his congressional salary for each day Sharp spent campaigning.

Pence`s dilemma underscores the difficulty of a candidate trying to campaign full time for public office without personal wealth to fall back on, especially a candidate trying to unseat an incumbent.

``For someone who is not independently wealthy, it takes an extraordinary personal sacrifice to wage an uphill battle for a congressional seat,`` said Thomas Mann, a Brookings Institution analyst who studies campaign financing.

``(The incumbent) has a nice salary during the campaign and no comparable need to get compensated for daily living. They also have office expenses and travel that they are allowed to charge to their expense account.

``Who can afford to stop their normal work and throw their hat in the ring?`` Mann asked.

About 98 percent of incumbents won re-election in the 1988 congressional races.

Pence`s plight even drew sympathy from some Democrats.

`` . . . it costs too damn much to run for office,`` said Michael McCurry, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

Scott Moxley, a spokesman for the Federal Election Commission, said the commission does not monitor how many candidates use campaign funds for personal expenses because the practice is legal. The law, Moxley said,

`` gives broad discretion to candidates on how they spend their money.``

``What we look for is to see that it is reported accurately. We don`t get into `you can spend it for this` or `you can spend it for that` because there is not a lot of regulation in that area.``

Pence, a lawyer, said he earned just under $30,000 last year. His wife, a schoolteacher, earned about $35,000. They also received about $10,000 in dividends from a family business. To run for the House, Pence said, he had to take a leave from his practice.

``Running for and winning a congressional seat in the latter part of this century is about two full-time jobs,`` Pence said.

Using campaign funds to supplement his family income, he said, was

``completely legally right, and it is morally right for a man to provide for his family. And there is a larger principle that, unless we can do this, then only the wealthy and the incumbent can run.``

Pence accused the Sharp campaign of ``leaking`` the public documents to discredit him. To that, Sharp`s press secretary, Bob McCarson, replied: ``I don`t know how you can leak something that was a public document.``

McCarson said Sharp`s campaign conducted a district-wide poll in June and found that at least half of those polled thought Pence`s use of campaign funds might provide a reason to vote against him.

He also charged Pence with false piety. ``He`s crying poor when he`s not,`` McCarson said, noting that the Pence family income is much higher than the average income of the district`s voters. `` . . . he`s known since 1988 that he was going to run. You would think he would get his financial house in order.``

Pence said his campaign polled his supporters and found that 15 percent are less likely to vote for him because of the expense issue; 52 percent said they don`t care.

The 2nd Congressional District includes the working-class cities of Muncie and Richmond and the increasingly affluent southeast side of Indianapolis. Sharp easily won relection until 1988, when Pence captured 47 percent of the vote. Pence repeatedly hammered Sharp for accepting money from political action committees.

This time the race was expected to be close again, and Pence thought he had to blunt the money issue before it overshadowed others.

``People had just never heard of the law`` allowing personal use of campaign funds, Pence said. ``I don`t have time to take people to school in this district. I`ve only got time to win an election.``